


Free

by woodsong_1978 (Vae)



Category: Firefly
Genre: Episode: s01e13 Heart of Gold, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-04-07
Updated: 2006-04-07
Packaged: 2017-12-07 07:38:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/745974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vae/pseuds/woodsong_1978
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally posted <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/ff_fanfic/361097.html">here</a>.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Free

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](http://community.livejournal.com/ff_fanfic/361097.html).

"You were friends, right?"

Inara started, looking up from the grave. "Yes, Kaylee. We were friends. A long time ago, now."

Kaylee stepped closer, timidly. "From training?"

"Yes."

"What was she like, 'Nara?"

"Free," Inara said eventually. "Always. A little wild, a little stubborn, very determined, but always free. She never wanted ties."

"Is that why she left Companioning?"

Inara bit her lip. It was all too close, too new, too personal. "She never said, but I think she found it was too regulated. The forms, the customs, the traditions that guide us bound her too closely." She smiled even as a single tear escaped. "There was an incident with a dulcimer that House Madrassa will never forget."

Kaylee's hand slipped into hers. "Didn't you ever think of leaving?"

"No, Kaylee. I find the order soothing. The rituals, the ceremonies - there is a rhythm to life that comforts. A peace."

"But Nandi got ties, didn't she? Out here, I mean. The girls all loved her. Like a family."

"Yes." She looked back at the freshly turned earth. "Like a family. Like a family you choose rather than the one you are born into."

"That's good, right?" Kaylee looked at her anxiously. "I mean, everybody needs family, right?"

"Not everybody, Kaylee." Inara squeezed her hand gently, letting go and moving forwards, closer to the grave, away from Serenity. "For some people, family is the tie that prevents freedom."

Kaylee stood back and watched her friend kneel by the headstone. The faint whisper carried to her on the breeze was almost inaudible.

"I always envied her freedom."


End file.
